It dawned on me recently A) no one ever discusses that failed 2003 reboot/pilot staring Jared Paladacki and B)still three seasons in many compare unfavorably to the original

So I thought I wonder if we compared the unaired 2003 pilot with the 2016 pilot which is better which showed more promise?

And am I the only one who wanted to do a fan season of the 2003 show lol

This one is actually a tough one.

Jared Padalecki is a great casting choice for MacGyver. He already plays a fairly MacGyver-ish character on Supernatural. But I felt the pilot was a bit generic and it didn't keep my attention.

On the other hand, despite the many issues I have with the reboot, it certainly has the best production quality. However, it's fairly anticlimactic. There's nothing I hate more then being hyped up and then being disappointed. It's just not really my kind of show.

I'm not a fan of the Mac/Jack bromance either. I find it rather forced and unnatural. But I'm spoiled on the bromance between Dean and Sam Winchester, which is a lot more natural and fluid due to the chemistry between the actors.

I would actually love to see Jared on the reboot actually. Perhaps in a Murdoc episode, because I LOVE David Dastmalchian as Murdoc.

For me... it's a bit of a tie.

I've never really seen the 2003 version so can't really discuss it

Pretty much what Jedi said, except I haven't seen the 2003 pilot

The 2003 pilot is on YouTube in full

The quality is pretty awful. I think I watched maybe 5 minutes before I gave up... it's also not an official upload. I'm actually surprised they never took it down.

I think I prefer the 2003 pilot episode. I finally got around to watching the whole thing, and although it had a few rough parts (the opening scene and the elevator scene, in particular), it showed more promise of becoming a series that would feel like what most of us expect MacGyver to be. The 2016 version really went for a different approach, highly emphasizing the team aspect, and it's filmed in a way that feels a lot more gimmicky (split-screens, captions on screen during the MacGyverisms, etc.) The 2003 version stuck to a more straight-forward approach, which I prefer.

I think one other advantage the 2003 version had is that the main character wasn't Angus MacGyver, it was Clay MacGyver. So any differences in personality could easily be chalked up to the fact that he IS a different character. With the 2016 version, it was more difficult to accept Lucas's version of MacGyver because he was supposed to be same guy we knew from the original series.